The Soap Opera: I impart to you my oldest beauty secret.

I have been attempting to keep the Soap Opera to myself. I first fell in love with this divine little Midwestern store 9 years ago as I embarked on the turbulent road of big ten college life. I have been on their mailing list since I said good bye to Madison, Wisconsin in May of 2002, enjoying their online sales and vast beauty product resources. This charming little Midwestern store is in fact a beauty industry beacon - shinning the light on bright new worlds as yet undiscovered by the masses and solidly defending the homeland by storing tried and true beauty industry staples.

The resources are too vast and the owners' ability to search out new authentically outstanding products is too keen to keep this to myself any longer. In college I would go there alone for hours on end - inspecting the new Roger & Gallet soaps - pondering the ingredients of the various clay masks - and delighting in the seasonal designs of their homemade soaps.

My college experience was not what one would considered balanced or well-rounded and I often found myself in dramatic, troublesome conundrums. The Soap Opera was my quiet little refuge offering up carrot flavored shower gels and Magno's famously black (but foaming white) Spanish soap to nourish and sustain me in rough waters. Even on the most blustery wind-whipped days I could manage a trip down to this oasis of self-care and beauty-focused inspiration.Almost all of the tremendous resources cultivated by award-winning owners Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith are gems about which I could write lengthy individual posts. I've known for a few weeks now that the second I sat down at my little silver lap top to actually write, the Soap Opera's secrets would come joyously dancing out of my finger tips like a young child eager to entertain. I imagine this eight year old Soap Opera child jumping up onto your computer screen, displaying all of it's most practiced metaphorical dance moves- "look - an aromatherapy resource center! and a skin care chart! - anyone can have good skin with this chart! - and an ingredient reference guide - and Laurie says I'm the best she's ever seen - so there...!" and breathlessly taking a bow.

So there...completely against my wishes and despite all of my best efforts to squash the idea, you now know about the store where I began my beauty infatuation and I beg you don't let my oldest beauty secret go to waste. Make use their meticulously collected inventory via their online store and study the resources available. And if you ever happen to be in this beautiful city packed with bearded outdoorsmen who run the streets with canoes on their shoulders, and packers fans who glue quarters on the streets just so they can sit in the windows of the local bar to watch young college girls bend down and try to pick them up, stop in this refuge of sensory delight and say hello to Chuck and Chuck for me. (If you are there in the summer the garden is a must-see.)